Sir, – Patsy McGarry sensibly posits the superiority of Robert Herrick’s To Daffodils over William Wordsworth’s most famous but deeply flawed poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (“In a Word... Daffodil”, Culture, April 29th).
McGarry’s negative view of the Wordsworth poem is shared by many, including the priest Hugh O’Flaherty in Joseph O’Connor’s book, My Father’s House.
In comparing Wordsworth unfavourably with Keats, the priest states that he “was never able to forgive (him) for the daffodils”.
Perhaps the final word on daffodils, however, is best left to William Shakespeare’s Perdita in The Winter’s Tale: “daffodils, / That come before the swallow dares, and take / The winds of March with beauty.”– Yours, etc,
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MICHAEL MURPHY,
Donaghmore,
Co Tyrone.